Midnight in the Heart of Equestria
by Wheller
Summary: Princess Luna is sent to Ponyville to make friends, however, she has the nagging feeling that things aren't going like they are supposed to.    The third tale in the series started in The Kindness of Strangers
1. Chapter 1

**Chronology notes:**

**Stop! You are reading the third story in the series started by the Kindness of Strangers!**

**Please read The Kindness of Strangers first!**

**.net/s/7203405/**

**This story is the direct sequel to **_**Putting the Pieces Back Together **_**found here:**

**.net/s/7230353/**

**Midnight in the Heart of Equestria**

**Chapter 1**

_Blue Moon..._

Midnight, Luna was always awake at Midnight. The Alicorn didn't need to sleep as much as other ponies, she could manage two or three hours every night, tops. The Night was her responsibility, and she needed to be awake for it, it was her duty to all pony kind. It was fortunate that she didn't need to sleep much; otherwise it would have been during the day. The time when the ponies of Equestria were awake... or at least, that's how it had been a thousand years ago.

A thousand years ago, pony kind was afraid of the night, now, Luna had discovered that larger portions of the population were awake more during the night. Her night was appreciated in the modern era. Everything she was jealous of when she had refused to lower the moon that fateful day was no longer true, and it made her guilty that she had been so selfish about it, she wanted her night to get it's due attention and respect. If she had only waited, she would have gotten it. Instead she had wasted a thousand years consumed in anger and jealousy.

It would be midnight when she would hear a small voice nagging at her from the back of her mind. Poisoning her thoughts with rage, anger, and jealousy of her older sister, the voice of Nightmare Moon had nagged at her for years before it finally took over and sent Equestria into eternal darkness. Forcing Celestia to utilise as much of the Elements of Harmony that she could use to overpower her and send her to the moon.

A thousand years of exile. A thousand years wasted. Luna knew that her sister had regretted sending her to the moon; she had confided in her that she wished she had come up with a better solution, but simply found that she hadn't the time. Balance in the world needed to be restored, and she hadn't the time to find something better.

Though, now it seemed that Luna's destiny was to be locked away. A thousand years in the moon, and now about to be two months in the Royal Hospital's Psychiatric Ward. Luna agreed that she belonged here, she had attempted suicide when the Alicorn Overdrive invaded her mind and assaulted her with horrible images and terrifying thoughts that she could still remember, horrible things that could not be unseen. She was punished for lying to him, and now she was still suffering the consequences of it.

She'd gotten better lately; she no longer needed the straight jacket that had held her close for nearly a month. Therapy was helping, Doctor Nightcaller, the pitch black earth pony with amber eyes was one of the best. Luna appreciated his help. She was beginning to get her life back together.

Luna looked out her window to see her bright, beautiful full moon. She smiled, it was her creation, and she loved it dearly.

The quiet night air was broken by a muted warble, and a faint ticking noise, causing Luna to jump. She recognised it and felt her heartbeat sky rocket; she was frightened because she knew what was coming.

From underneath the door a plume of thick black smoke poured into the room, whirring and clicking as it moved towards her. Three pitch black ponies stepped from the smoke, one of each race, leaving no trace that there had ever been smoke at all.

"I should have known," Luna said. "It was so obvious, but I wanted to believe that it was coincidence, I want to believe you were helping me."

"Luna, my dear, we have always been helping you. We have always had your best interests at heart," the leader, an earth pony, said.

"Don't lie to me Nightcaller!" Luna screamed at him.

Nightcaller smiled at her. "I do not lie, my princess. I do not lie."

The three ponies galloped at her, returning to smoke and entering the younger princess' body. Everything went dark, and Luna passed out.

…

"Tia..." Luna whined as her sister ushered her into the royal carriage.

"Don't you 'Tia' me little sister!" Celestia said with a smile. "You're going. That's that!"

"Tia. They're going to hate me."

Celestia looked at her younger sister warmly. "Luna I assure you, Twilight Sparkle is incapable of hate, and I am sure she is going to be very happy to see you again. You've been back for nearly a year and you need to make some friends!"

Luna frowned at her as she stepped into the carriage. "You don't have any friends."

Celestia was taken aback, surprised by her sister's jab. "I have... lots of friends!"

"Name one."

Celestia used her magic to jab one of the guards, causing him to move the carriage, sending Princess Luna off towards Ponyville.

Luna scowled at her sister as she left.

Not to misunderstand, Luna had nothing against making friends. She was afraid that Twilight Sparkle and her friends still had hard feelings over what she had done to them. Luna had barely forgiven herself. Let alone expecting anypony else to forgive her.

Soon enough the carriage touched down, Luna exited and thanked the guards for the trip.

Just as Luna had expected, nopony was there to meet her. She frowned, the carriage departed, there was still a chance to sneak back to Canterlot before nopony noticed she'd even come at all.

Lost in her thoughts Luna didn't see somepony bump into her.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" the Pony, a colt's voice called out. Luna turned to look at him, standing before her was an earth pony, his mane and coat were pitch black, and his eyes glowing amber. Clearly this pony recognised her for who she was, because he panicked and bowed. "Your highness! I am so very sorry, I wasn't paying attention... I know that's no excuse, but please forgive me."

"It's okay," Luna said softly. "What's your name?"

"My name is Nightcaller," the earth pony said, offering another bow.

Luna smiled at him. "You don't have to do that. It's nice to meet you Nightcaller."

_No._ Something was wrong with this situation. This wasn't how it happened.

"Your Highness," another voice belonging to a filly called out. Luna looked up to see Twilight Sparkle and her friends, bowing before her.

Luna looked around, finding earth pony from before had disappeared... but she was struggling to remember his name. "You really don't have to do that," Luna said gingerly kicking a rock that was on the ground next to her.

"Hello your highness!" Twilight said with a beaming smile on her face. "Do you remember us? I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash."

Luna remembered them. "Hello... Um, will you excuse me? I need to..." She found her voice trailing off and she dashed off, the memory of the black earth pony was escaping from her mind, she couldn't remember his name, or his face, all she remembered was that his coat was black.

"Your highness?" Twilight Sparkle said from behind her. Luna turned around and looked at the Unicorn; she shut her eyes tightly and groaned slightly. She had completely forgotten the earth pony. "I can't remember..." she mumbled to herself, not loud enough for Twilight to hear.

Twilight looked at the Princess with confusion. "I'm sorry; I didn't hear what you said."

Luna shut her eyes again, and spoke somewhat louder. "Why are you, of all ponies, talking to me? You have every reason to ignore me. You _should _hate me."

The fact that she'd even seen a black earth pony had completely left her now.

"It's okay. I don't hate you. We don't hate you! All my friends and I have been looking forward to seeing you! We didn't get to know you very well and we want to be your friend! If you'll let us," Twilight said smiling at the shy mare before her.

"You... you don't really mean that, do you?" Luna asked worriedly.

"I DO mean it. I want to be your friend, and I'm sure other ponies do to. So come on! Let's be friends!"

Luna thought about it for a moment. This was why she was here right? "Okay..."

Twilight smiled brightly. "Great! Come on; let's go find my other friends. They're going to love you! I promise."

Luna smiled back at her. She had no memory that anything had even been bothering her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_You saw me standing alone..._

Something was wrong.

A moment ago, Princess Luna was walking with Twilight Sparkle to Sugarcube Corner; it was the middle of the day.

Now it was early morning and she was standing on the outskirts of town watching the sun rise. Something was very, very wrong indeed.

Luna looked around, and saw a pitch black earth pony near the tree line. Amber eyes looked out at her; she had nearly missed him in the low light of daybreak.

"You!" Luna cried out to the earth pony, her voice filling with fear. "I _remember_ you! I know who you are!"

"Yes. Yes you do," Nightcaller said as he trotted towards her. "And then you _forgot._"

Luna blinked; every feeling that something was wrong had washed away in an instant. "Oh hello! You startled me; I don't see many ponies out at sunrise."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," the black earth pony said. "Please forgive me your highness."

"It's... quite all right," Luna said. "Have we met before? You seem very familiar."

"I don't think so... I know you because you're well... you, but I don't think we've actually met in person," the earth pony said. "My name is Nightcaller."

Luna smiled at the stallion before her. "Pleasure to meet you Nightcaller."

Nightcaller did not reply, as another voice, this one soft and meek filled the air.

"Hello Princess Luna... Um, I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

Princess Luna turned to look, Fluttershy, the shy, yellow coated pegasus was standing before her.

"Hello Fluttershy, I'm just enjoying the sunrise," Luna said.

_Wait. No._ That didn't sound right. Princess Luna was filled with a sort of Déjà vu. She felt like this had happened before, but it was different than it was supposed to be.

Nightcaller had disappeared, but Luna was not concerned by this, when she looked away from him, she'd instantly forgotten his existence.

"Are you all right Princess?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know..." Luna said, unsure of what was happening.

Then it hit her. It was far too early for Fluttershy to be here.

Luna blinked again, and the sky was much brighter now, the sun had risen to the eight o'clock position.

"Who is that pony?" Fluttershy asked looking out into the distance.

Luna looked out into the distance. A single pitch black pony with an equally black mane and tail was walking towards them, a colt, no less. No more than 10 metres out. Neither Fluttershy, nor Luna had seen this pony before. Who was he?

The colt walked up to the two mares, gave each a look and smiled. "Ponies! I made it..." he said before passing out on the ground at their hooves.

Fluttershy's jaw dropped. "Come on! We need to get him help! Help me carry him!" she cried out frantically. Luna had never seen the meek pegasus so excited... or had she? She was getting déjà vu again. Only this time she ignored it, this earth pony needed help, and she couldn't just ignore somepony who had passed out at her hooves.

Luna and Fluttershy picked him up and carried him off towards the Clinic.

Luna blinked. She found herself in the ponyville clinic. The pitch black earth pony was awake, and speaking to an assembled group of Fluttershy and the rest of her friends.

"My name is... uh... Nightcaller, that's my name. Nightcaller, and well, I've been walking for the last two months... I seemed to have, misjudged the distance between here and my last stop, because... Well, I ran out of food eight days ago, and had the last drop of my water two days ago. I barely made it here. When I came across you two I had just reached the point where I couldn't go any further... If you hadn't been there, I might have collapsed from exhaustion and died with no one knowing I was even out there."

Wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! Luna knew for sure now. This had happened before, but it had not happened like this.

"WHO ARE YOU?" she screamed loudly at the bedridden earth pony, causing everypony in the room to jump in surprise.

Nightcaller merely smiled at her. "You know."

Her memories came flooding back. She remembered now, she had met this pony before. He kept appearing where he didn't belong.

"You might call it a dream..." Nightcaller said, he reached out his hooves towards the closest pony next to his bed, Pinkie Pie, grabbing her head and with a twist, snapped her neck. "I prefer, however, to call it a _nightmare._"

Pinkie Pie's body fell to the floor. The rest of her friends collapsed along with her, each of them dying from seemingly natural causes.

"This is wrong... This is so, very, very wrong!" She cried out.

"Yes it is," Nightcaller said his voice rang with no emotion at all. "It's wrong that you believed you'd escaped from us."

Black smoke filled the room, Nightshadow and Nightsinger appearing from it, they joined their brother as they marched over the corpses of Luna's friends, backing her into a corner.

"You've forgotten your own personal _Nightmare._ Now we've come to bring her back." Nightcaller said, smiling coldly.

Luna's eyes widened. "No! You can't do that!"

Nightcaller could only chuckle. "Can't we?"

The trio galloped at her, returning to their form of black smoke and entering the night princess' body. Luna felt it as her body began to change, she cried out in pain as she was becoming something that she'd hoped would never see the light of day, or, more accurately, the dark of night ever again.

The cloud of black smoke lifted, Princess Luna was gone. Nightmare Moon had come again.

"_It feels so good to be back, doesn't it?_" A voice whispered to her.

"Oh yes it does!" Nightmare Moon cackled. "And this night, these streets will flow with pony blood!"

Princess Luna could only watch in horror. Her Nightmare was in full swing, and she could do nothing to stop it. She couldn't wake up.

The Clinic door's burst open. The night had just fallen and many ponies were still out and about finishing up the day's business. It was the last they would see.

"It's Nightmare Moon! Everypony run!" a green coated unicorn cried out, the ponies panicked and galloped away in random directions.

Nightmare Moon charged the green unicorn, her longer legs caused her to close the distance. She lowered her head and speared the green pony with her horn. The first drops of blood had been spilled.

Nightmare Moon cackled insanely as she felt the unicorn's life fleeing her, soon enough the pony was dead and Nightmare Moon shook the body from her horn. There was far more than where this came from.

"Lyra!" a crème coloured earth pony called out. Nightmare Moon turned her attention onto her.

"And ponies say I show no mercy!" Nightmare Moon called out. "I'll show you the mercy of not having to live without her!"

Nightmare Moon charged the crème coloured pony, who didn't even bother to make her death enjoyable by running. Nightmare Moon speared her as well, the crème coloured earth pony didn't even whimper in pain.

"Bah," Nightmare Moon said as the earth ponies life ended. "How _boring!_ At least she could have made it somewhat enjoyable by screaming in pain, or crying or _something!_"

"_It is of no consequence. There is more where that came from."_

…

Ponyville's streets had become a river of blood. The town was burning and corpses were strewn about everywhere. Nightmare Moon was pleased with her handiwork.

"Forget ruling an everlasting night! This is so much more fun!" Nightmare Moon chuckled to herself.

"_Aren't you glad we came back to you?"_ The voice whispered to her.

Princess Luna, from her introspective seat inside Nightmare Moon's mind let out a scream of _No! _It however fell upon deaf ears.

"Yes!" Nightmare Moon cried out with childish glee.

"_We promise what we will never leave you, ever again."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Without a Dream in My Heart..._

Luna awoke. Her eyes thrown open, screaming at the top of her lungs in fear. She went unheard. She was breathing heavily, but began to collect herself as she saw the familiar surroundings of her padded room. She had never been happier in her entire life to see herself locked in an insane asylum.

_A dream? More like a nightmare... but still just a nightmare._

"Sorry. You don't get to be that lucky."

Luna turned to her left in horror to see the three pitch black ponies.

"Leave me alone! Please I just want to be left alone!" Luna sobbed.

A cruel smile formed on Nightcaller's face. He merely shook his head.

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" Luna was at the point of breaking, what she'd been forced to experience was too much for her to handle.

"Why? I'll tell you why. _We made you, _we nurtured you, we kept you safe for our thousand year exile on the moon." Nightcaller leaned in close, dropping his voice to a mere whisper. "And you are not allowed to forget it."

"You lied to me! All those years you lied to me! You told me that everypony hated the night; you made me jealous of my sister! It's your fault I was forced to go to the moon!" Luna screamed at it.

"One ponies' fact, is another ponies' fiction." Nightcaller said, brushing her off. "Everything you did before our exile... that was all you. You made choices. We didn't force you to do anything."

"We did lie," Nightsinger said. "We're not going to pretend we didn't, but you chose to listen to the little voice in the back of your head that you knew didn't belong... So who's really to blame for that?"

"Truth, lies, good, evil, these are concepts, formed in the minds of ponies," Nightshadow stated plainly. "They are fiction. All that is real are Order... and Chaos."

Nightcaller leaned in close. "I think our good princess is tired. We shan't keep you up then." Nightcaller gave the Princess a kiss on her muzzle; she was disgusted by this and wanted it cut off. "Sweet dreams," he said mockingly.

The Siblings Nightmare returned to the cloud of smoke, whisking away under the door.

Luna would not be sleeping that night.

…

Morning came, and Luna's eyes were still as wide open as they had been. Her door opened, Nightcaller was standing before her, clad in his white medical coat. He was Doctor Nightcaller right now.

"Good morning Princess!" He said cheerfully. "How are you this morning?"

"Don't play games with me," Luna said coldly.

"Whatever do you mean?" Doctor Nightcaller said stepping aside. "You have a visitor you know."

Celestia stepped into the room, smiling at her sister.

Luna's eyes widened, she had never been happier to see Celestia in her entire life. "Tia! Oh thank goodness you're here!"

"I'll give you two a moment." Doctor Nightcaller said with a wink towards Luna.

"Thank you Doctor," Celestia said.

Nightcaller smiled and closed the door behind him. Luna sighed a sigh of relief. "You have to get me out of here! He's not a doctor! He wants to kill us all!"

Celestia looked at her sister with confusion. Luna didn't notice and continued to speak.

"They came last night! They came and they tortured me! They played with my mind, made me do horrible things! Please Tia! Please! You have to help me!" Luna had broken down into tears.

"Luna...?" Celestia asked gently. "Have you stopped taking your medication?"

Luna stopped crying. She looked up in horror; her own sister didn't believe her. "You have to believe me! We're not safe! Those three will kill us all!"

"I..." Celestia trailed off, looking for the right words. "I want to believe you... I really do, but... You have to consider where we are when you're saying them..."

Unbelievable, her own sister didn't believe her. Luna knew she had a point about the fact that she was saying these things while locked in a padded room in the psychiatric ward, but she didn't care. This was her sister!

"I'm sorry." Celestia said, rising to her hooves. She crossed to the door, and lightly tapped on it a few times.

Nightcaller opened the door, and Celestia looked back at her sister.

"I'm so sorry." Celestia said and she walked out of the room.

"Don't leave me!" Luna screamed at the top of her lungs. "They'll kill us all! They'll kill us all!"


	4. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Without a Love of My Own..._

"Spike!" Twilight Sparkle called out to her assistant. "Would you please bring me a copy of _Supernaturals_?"

"You got it! _Supernaturals _coming right up!" the baby dragon called out excitedly.

The front door opened and Twilight looked up. Standing in the door was an all black unicorn stallion, his amber eyes looking right at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone to be here. I can come back later if I'm disturbing you."

"Oh no!" Twilight reassured him. "I might live here, but this _is_ still a public library... Just so happens hardly anypony else uses it."

The unicorn stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Twilight was sure that she hadn't met him before. Which was odd, ponyville was a small town, everypony was at least acquainted with everypony else. "I don't think we've met."

"I'm new in town," the unicorn said. "My name is Nightshadow. I'm an apothecary... so I spend most of my time locked away studying and brewing things."

Twilight felt her heart begin to flutter, though she wasn't sure why. "Oh... ha, I know what that's like! When I'm on a studying binge I could go unseen for days at a time!" Twilight wasn't sure why, but her response had come out extremely awkwardly. "I'm Twilight Sparkle... Is there anything I can help you find?"

"Ah yes. There is an apothecary book called _Supernaturals._ I'm ashamed to say I don't have one. Would you happen to have a copy of it?"

"Um... yes! I do have one copy of it... I was just about to use it, would you maybe like to look at it with me?" Twilight said, mentally kicking herself for how dumb she was sounding.

"I'd love to," Nightshadow said with a smile.

Spike returned with the book and the two unicorns spent the next few hours chatting.

_Supernaturals_ was never even opened.


End file.
